North American Philips Corporation

Larry G Phillips

Saiprasad V Naimpally

Ted A Darby

David C Greene

Edwin R Meyer

Anthony R Bugni

William S Burdick

A method and apparatus for synchronizing a received television signal to a subcarrier locked signal is provided. The apparatus includes a comparison block for determining whether the received television signal and subcarrier locked signal are related by a predetermined fixed frequency relationship and for providing indications of the same, and a signal generation block for dividing down the subcarrier locked signal according to the predetermined fixed frequency relationship so as to provide an output signal which is synchronized with the subcarrier locked signal, and at a frequency determined according to the fixed frequency relationship when the signals are related. The apparatus is particularly useful in PIP applications where the received television signal is a horizontal signal and the subcarrier locked signal is a four times multiple of the subcarrier frequency. The comparison block preferably includes a counter and a windowing circuit for determining whether edges of horizontal signal pulses are received within or outside a predetermined time window, and a decision circuit for determining whether the occurrences (counts) of in and out of window edges are indicative of related or unrelated signals. The entire apparatus preferably includes only flip-flops, simple logic gates such as AND, NAND, or OR gates, inverters, multiplexer switches, and resettable counters. The apparatus also preferably further includes a standard combination of flip-flops and a NAND gate for providing a synchronized horizontal reset output signal when the comparison block determines that the received horizontal clock and the subcarrier locked clock are not related.

Apparatus and method for generating a horizontal reset signal

Apparatus and methods for remodulating digital luminance and color difference components for display as PIP information, or together with other composite video components for multi-PIP and test pattern applications are disclosed. A digital encoder is used for conducting a digital quadrature modulation on the color difference components and for digitally adding the luminance signal thereto prior to the converting of the remodulated information into an analog format. Preferably, the digital video information output by the encoder is in the form Y1+(R-Y)1, Y1 +(B-Y)1, Y2-(R-Y)1, Y2-(B-Y)1, Y3+(R-Y)2. Y3+(b-Y)2, Y4 -(R-Y)2, . . . , where Y is the luminance component, R-Y and B-Y are color difference components, and where the numbers index received samples of the video components with the luminance component being sampled at twice the frequency of the color difference components. Where digitally modulated composite video is desired, fixed black level, burst, and background values are multiplexed with the active R-Y and B-Y signals, while fixed sync tip, black level, and background values are multiplexed with the active Y signals prior to encoding.

Apparatus and method for creating digitally remodulated video from

A T.V. input source identifying circuit for determining whether a video signal is from a videotape player or a broadcast signal by measuring jitter of vertical synchronization pulses and by measuring noise. The video signal includes a plurality of frames with each frame including a plurality of fields. In one embodiment of the present invention, timing data is generated corresponding to the period of at least one selected field in each of a plurality of selected frames. From this timing data, a maximum number is stored that corresponds to the greatest period and a minimum number is stored that corresponds to the least period of the selected fields. The minimum number is subtracted from the maximum number and the difference is compared to a threshold to determine the type of video signal. In an alternate embodiment, numbers corresponding to fields from successive frames are compared by a subtraction and the difference is compared to a threshold in order to make a decision as to the type of video signal. In both of the aforementioned embodiments, the noise level of the video signal is constantly monitored. When the noise is above a threshold, the local signal is generated regardless of the information derived from the timing data.

T.V. input source identifier responsive to jitter and noise

Either one of the fields of an interlaced television signal is designated as top field as indicated by a first selector signal. The presence of a second selector signal indicates bottom field. A regenerated vertical synchronization signal is furnished for the first horizontal synchronization signal following vertical synchronization in top field. This regenerated vertical synchronization signal resets a counter which counts horizontal synchronization signals repetitively to a count of five. A second regenerated vertical synchronization signal is furnished when the count of five is reached following the vertical synchronization signal of bottom field. The counter is reset by each first regenerated vertical synchronization signal. When a synchronization signal which would normally be designated top field occurs within a predetermined window around horizontal synchronization, the subsequent field is designated top field, i.e. a field switch takes place.

Method and apparatus for the recording and replay of interlaced signals

Upon receipt of an interlaced television signal, the field generator generates a first selector signal arbitrarily selecting one of the fields as top field and a second field selector signal selecting the other as bottom field. The received television signal is entered into memory under control of the field selector signals. When readout from the memory occurs on the same line that is currently being recorded, the same field selector signal is maintained for another field, effectively switching the top and bottom assignments.

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Knoxville, TN, United States of America

Larry G Phillips